The violent altercation last week that left Senator Rand Paul nursing bruised lungs and broken ribs began over a landscaping dispute between the senator and his longtime next-door neighbor, according to neighbors and three Kentucky Republicans familiar with what transpired.

The precise provenance of the dispute was still a matter of disagreement on Monday. But the back story of the fracas began to come into focus and with it, the realization that Mr. Paul’s injuries could keep him from Washington, where Republicans in the Senate hold only a slim majority, for some time.

Mr. Paul had just stepped off a riding lawn mower on Friday when Rene Boucher, a retired anesthesiologist who lived next door, charged and tackled him. Because Mr. Paul was wearing sound-muting earmuffs, he did not realize Mr. Boucher was coming, according to one of the Kentucky Republicans and a friend familiar with the altercation.

“Rand never saw him coming or heard him coming,” said the friend, Robert Porter, who visited Mr. Paul on Saturday.

The damage was severe. Aides to Mr. Paul said on Sunday that the Kentucky Republican had suffered five broken ribs and bruises to his lungs. When a Kentucky State Police trooper showed up at Mr. Paul’s home on Friday afternoon, the senator had small cuts around his nose and mouth, and had trouble breathing because of the injuries to his ribs.

Two rich neighbors in Kentucky get into a fight and the most severe charge they can come up with is fourth-degree assault?

Mr. Boucher was charged with fourth-degree assault and released on $7,500 bond. He is set to appear in court on Thursday. He was also ordered to not have any contact with Mr. Paul or his family and staff, and to stay at least 1,000 feet away from the senator unless Mr. Boucher was in his own home, next door.

Let’s throw some class warfare into this. If a regular human had done this to either of them, the charge would have easily been aggravated assault. If the regular human was a person of color, the charge would have been attempted murder.

Just sayin’, this is not life in the real world.

(For the record, I vote against Rand Paul whenever possible, but to get your ass kicked for not raking your leaves, or something just as irrelevant, is absurd.)

A bargain at $386 million, and only $2 million a month to rent. I hear it has a nice roundish office, too. But it’s not on the market, although a certain presidential candidate has enough money to buy it, and would put his name on it in YUUUGE letters.